Rare Hertz 1966 Mustang GT350H For Sale

A rare 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H Hertz “Rent-A-Racer” is up for auction on Bring A Trailer. The Shelby American Automobile Club registry identified it as chassis #6S2118 and it was originally received on May 12, 1966 at Larsen Ford of White Plains, NY. It was prepped at the dealership and then delivered to Hertz in New York.

The one being offered by BAT was refurbished in the 1980s and has a matching-numbers 289ci V8 engine paired with a four-speed manual transmission. Mileage is unknown but the odometer states 19,000-miles. Judging by the photos included with the listing it appears to be a very clean example.

The “Rent-A Racer” program was a marketing scheme developed by Hertz car rentals to get potential customer’s attention by offering a sports car for rent at $17.00 a day. Carroll Shelby was on board and 1,001 Shelby Mustang GT350’s were painted black with gold racing stripes (Hertz’s corporate color scheme) and dubbed the “GT350H”.

Under the hood a K-code 289ci V8 engine was tuned by Shelby’s shop and it produced 306hp. The engine was paired with either a four-speed manual or a three-speed automatic transmission.

Hertz was riding the wave of the recently released Ford Mustang and was attempting to garner a market segment that wanted a fast and sporty rental option. The Mustang hit the streets in late 1964 and 121,538 were sold in that shortened first year. The following year sales figures jumped to 559,500 sold and in 1966 the numbers kept increasing to 607,568 pony cars.

A Hertz brochure from 1966 states:

“These cars are available to business travelers who want a change of pace in motoring, by sports car owners away from home and by vacations who consider driving an enjoyable sport.”

Anecdotes are prevalent that many of the “Rent-A-Racers” were used beyond their intended means of the vacationing traveler wanting something with a little more pep but were used on racetracks.

Used and abused like many rental cars they were returned to Hertz by the customer when the rental contract ended and were often scrapped due to driver inflicted damage. As such, there aren’t a lot of them floating around and prices are often high.